There's Something About Marriage

I found studies and stories claiming that married Americans are healthier -- less likely to get pneumonia or develop cancer or have heart attacks or dementia -- than non-married Americans. According to other studies, married people live more content lives and are less likely to commit suicide (granted, a pretty low bar of happiness, but still) or worry. Married couples are financially better off, and their children are usually more successful.

Why are couples staying together? Like Diaz, we can hypothesize. Perhaps the rise of connective technology has created marriages based more on compatibility than immediacy or luck. Perhaps we have readjusted to our life expectancy and marry later and thus more smartly. Whatever the reasons, marriage can bring a healthier life.

This is not a moral observation of a traditionalist, but indisputable. There is innate need pulling us to marriage. It's been around from prehistory, and it has taken many forms -- polygamy, polyandry and my historical favorite, polyfidelity -- but it's never been close to passing on. Today we've settled on monogamy, and it has brought great stability and structure to society. It's probably busy readjusting rather than dying.

I'd prove this firsthand to doubters, but alas, Cameron, I am spoken for.